What happened
Giving investors an unwelcome jolt, analysts turned sour on electric-vehicle (EV) charging network stock Volta (VLTA) on Tuesday after the trading session ended, and the market is responding to the bearish sentiment today.
As of 1:37 p.m. ET on Wednesday, shares of Volta had fallen 9.2%.
So what
The first bit of pessimism came from Jed Dorsheimer, an analyst at Canaccord Genuity. Dorsheimer slashed the price target on Volta to $2.50 from $3 and maintained a hold rating on the stock. According to Thefly.com, Dorsheimer predicated his revised price target on the fact that Volta recently posted a loss that was far steeper than expected. While analysts anticipated the company would report a loss per share of $0.16 for the fourth quarter of 2021, the loss was $0.77 per share.
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Similarly, Mark Delaney, an analyst at Goldman Sachs, also has a less-auspicious view of Volta's stock. Yesterday, investors learned that Delaney reduced his price target to $2 from $3 and downgraded the stock to sell from neutral. Thefly.com reports that Delaney identified a variety of factors for his more-bearish opinion of the stock, including supply chain concerns that could hurt the company's margins.
Now what
While it's certainly worth noting Wall Street's takes on Volta's stock, the more-material factor that investors should recognize is the company's recent shake-up in the C-suite. Last month, Volta announced that its founder and CEO was stepping down, and last Friday, the company announced that its board of directors had appointed its chief revenue officer, Brandt Hastings, as the interim CEO.
How well Hastings fares in helping the company achieve growth is of considerably more concern for investors; consequently, they should pay closer heed to his leadership than to the opinions of analysts.
